BILL NUMBER: AB 1382	CHAPTERED  09/26/00

	CHAPTER   664
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE   SEPTEMBER 26, 2000
	APPROVED BY GOVERNOR   SEPTEMBER 24, 2000
	PASSED THE ASSEMBLY   AUGUST 29, 2000
	PASSED THE SENATE   AUGUST 28, 2000
	AMENDED IN SENATE   AUGUST 25, 2000
	AMENDED IN SENATE   AUGUST 9, 2000
	AMENDED IN SENATE   JUNE 14, 2000
	AMENDED IN SENATE   JULY 6, 1999
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   MAY 6, 1999

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Lowenthal

                        FEBRUARY 26, 1999

   An act to add Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 17998) to Part
1.5 of Division 13 of, and to repeal Section 17998.2 of, the Health
and Safety Code, relating to housing.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1382, Lowenthal.  Housing:  code enforcement incentive program.

   Existing law contains various provisions relating to building
standards and code enforcement.
   This bill would establish the Code Enforcement Incentive Program
pursuant to which the Department of Housing and Community
Development, upon appropriation by the Legislature, would make funds
available as matching grants to cities, counties, and cities and
counties through December 31, 2003, to increase staffing dedicated to
local building code enforcement efforts.  The bill would require the
department to award the grants on a competitive basis, as specified,
and would exempt the grant program from provisions of the
Administrative Procedure Act.
   The bill would also require that grant recipients submit a report,
on or before June 30, 2004, to their local legislative bodies and to
the department regarding the results of the expanded code
enforcement efforts, and would require the department to summarize
the results and transmit the reports to the Legislature by December
31, 2004.
   This bill would also establish the Community Code Enforcement
Pilot Program pursuant to which the Department of Housing and
Community Development would award grants to communities that develop
a code enforcement pilot program meeting specified criteria that
would operate until December 31, 2003.  The bill would require the
pilot program administrators to evaluate the pilot programs and
report that information to the department by June 30, 2004, and would
require the department to report to the Legislature by December 31,
2004.  These provisions would be repealed on January 1, 2005, unless
extended by a later enacted statute.
   This bill would require that $2,250,000 appropriated in a
specified item of the Budget Act of 2000 be used by the Department of
Housing and Community Development for the Community Code Enforcement
Pilot Program, and would authorize the department to use any funds
not awarded pursuant to that program by December 31, 2001, for the
matching grants to cities, counties, and cities and counties for
local code enforcement efforts as described above.
   This bill would provide that these provisions supersede Chapter 82
of the Statutes of 2000.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 17998) is added to
Part 1.5 of Division 13 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:

      CHAPTER 8.  CODE ENFORCEMENT INCENTIVE PROGRAM

   17998.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
   (a) The Department of Housing and Community Development reports
that one in every eight dwelling units in the state is substandard
and that unless health and safety problems are corrected,
habitability conditions generally deteriorate until the units become
life threatening and uninhabitable and must be removed from the
housing stock through closure or demolition.
   (b) California is experiencing a housing shortage of significant
proportions, particularly in the affordable housing sector.  The
state and many local governments are funding affordable housing from
a variety of sources at substantial costs.  It is ill advised to
neglect timely code enforcement responsibilities and, as a result, to
lose housing that could have been retained.
   (c) The lack of code enforcement on a single dwelling unit can
lead to the deterioration of an entire neighborhood as the
substandard or abandoned unit becomes a magnet for crime, vandalism,
fires, and other activities that rapidly infect the surrounding homes
and neighborhood.
   (d) Many local governments endeavor to fulfill their statutory
responsibility for code enforcement.  However, local governments with
a higher percentage of lower income households with families, living
in older, overcrowded housing stock, exacerbated by the neglect of
absentee slumlords, bear a disproportionate code enforcement cost and
responsibility compared with more affluent communities.
   (e) Existing law provides building standards to assure decent,
safe, and sanitary housing for all Californians.
   (f) Resources for code enforcement at the local level are
frequently allocated to construction-related code enforcement
activities, which generate fees to pay for regulatory services,
including building and permit inspections, rather than housing
maintenance activities that prevent or abate substandard conditions.

   (g) The enforcement of housing maintenance codes for existing
housing is frequently performed only on a complaint-by-complaint
basis and frequently there is insufficient funding for the abatement
of existing violations through timely and effective administrative or
judicial proceedings.
   17998.1.  The Department of Housing and Community Development,
upon appropriation by the Legislature for this purpose, shall make
funds available as matching grants to cities, counties, and cities
and counties to increase staffing dedicated to local building code
enforcement efforts.  The funds shall be subject to all of the
following provisions:
   (a) Grants shall be made to grantees through December 31, 2003.
   (b) The city, county, or city and county shall provide a cash or
in-kind local match of at least 25 percent in the first year, at
least 50 percent in the second year, and at least 75 percent in the
third year.
   (c) The maximum grant to a single recipient shall not exceed one
million dollars ($1,000,000).  The department may establish minimum
grant levels.
   (d) Funds may be used to supplement, but shall not supplant,
existing local funding for code enforcement related to housing code
maintenance.  The applicants shall demonstrate an intent to ensure
cooperative and effective working relationships between code
enforcement officials and local prosecutorial agencies, the local
health department, and local government housing rehabilitation
financing agencies.
   (e) On or before June 30, 2004, grant recipients shall submit a
report to their local legislative bodies and to the department
regarding the results of the expanded housing maintenance code
enforcement efforts and recommendations for changes in state or local
laws and regulations related to code enforcement.  The department
shall summarize the results and transmit the reports to the
Legislature by December 31, 2004.  The department may require
submission of interim progress reports.
   (f) The department may use up to 5 percent of the funds
appropriated by the Legislature for administering the programs
authorized by this chapter.
   (g) The department shall award the grants on a competitive basis
with criteria to be established and specified in a "Notice of Funding
Availability."  The criteria shall be weighted for local government
applicants with neighborhoods populated by high percentages of lower
income households, with significant numbers of deteriorating housing
stock containing reported or suspected housing code violations and
often owned by absentee owners.  The criteria shall also be weighted
for applications that propose to identify and prosecute owners with
habitual, repeated, multiple code violations that have remained
unabated beyond the period required for abatement.  Eligibility
criteria, applications, awards, and other program requirements
implementing this chapter shall not be subject to the requirements of
Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Title 2 of
the Government Code.
   17998.2.  (a) It is the intent of the Legislature in the enactment
of this section to do all of the following:
   (1) Initiate a coordinated active community approach to code
enforcement.
   (2) Create a pilot program in which the department awards grants
to communities that develop a code enforcement program pursuant to
the criteria established by this section.
   (3) Substantially reduce the incidence of substandard housing
through the use of creative and coordinated techniques of code
enforcement involving an interdepartmental approach at the local
government level.
   (b) The grant program established pursuant to this section shall
be known as the Community Code Enforcement Pilot Program.  The
Department of Housing and Community Development shall administer the
Community Code Enforcement Pilot Program.
   (1) The department need not adopt regulations for the program.
The department shall publish and distribute a Notice of Funding
Availability that contains application forms and instructions,
eligibility criteria, criteria for the rating and ranking of
applications, outcome evaluation criteria, interim or final reporting
requirements, and other information that the department considers
necessary or useful for implementation of the program.
   (2) The department shall review, rate, and rank applications based
on its evaluation of the information provided pursuant to
subdivision (e),  and their projected program performance as measured
by all of the following criteria, considering the size of the
applicant community:
   (A) The minimum number of housing units affordable to lower income
households that will be rehabilitated or otherwise brought into
compliance with applicable building and housing codes.
   (B) The estimated amount of grants and low interest rehabilitation
loan funds, from sources other than this program, that will be made
available to the owners of housing units affordable to lower income
households that are determined to need rehabilitation or repair
pursuant to the program.
   (C) The incidence of poverty and deteriorating housing or housing
code violations in each target area.
   (3) The department shall attempt to award community code
enforcement pilot program grants to cities, counties, and cities and
counties with a wide range of population sizes and compositions and
geographical distribution.
   (c) The department shall award community code enforcement pilot
program grants for programs that shall operate until December 31,
2003.  The grants shall not exceed four hundred fifty thousand
dollars ($450,000), which shall pay for costs incurred over the life
of the program.  The department may establish minimum grant levels.
   (d) Each city, county, or city and county receiving a grant shall
develop a code enforcement team consisting of a least one full-time
code enforcement officer and a part-time city planner, health
officer, or comparable specialist.  Each grantee shall provide, and
fund at its own expense, at least one city planner, health officer,
or comparable specialist for the duration of the pilot program, for a
minimum of 20 hours per week.  The grant funds shall be used for the
code enforcement officer and related program costs, which may
include full-time or part-time personnel, in addition to the grantee'
s contributions.
   (e) Grant proposals shall include all of the following:
   (1) Demonstration of serious, current housing code enforcement
deficiencies within each target area, whether those code deficiencies
are in violation of locally enacted ordinances or state codes.
   (2) A plan to have high visibility of code enforcement staff and
to create close and frequent communication and interaction with
residents and property owners of the target area, including in the
evenings and on weekends.
   (3) A plan to convene community meetings to inform residents of
the pilot program.
   (4) A plan to conduct ongoing frequent informal and formal
community meetings with the code enforcement team and residents of
the community involved in the pilot program.
   (5) A plan demonstrating an intent to ensure cooperative and
effective working relationships between code enforcement officials,
local health department officials, local prosecutorial agencies, and
officials operating local programs providing public funds to finance
affordable rental housing rehabilitation and repairs.
   (6) A plan for timely and effective administrative and judicial
enforcement of code violations.
   (f) The administrator of each grantee's pilot program shall
evaluate the pilot program and report the findings and other criteria
requested by the department indicating the effectiveness of the
pilot program to the department by June 30, 2004.  The administrator
shall evaluate the pilot program based on criteria including, but not
limited to, the following:
   (1) Results of a participant survey, including owners, residents,
and active community leaders.
   (2) Comparison of each targeted area with similar neighborhoods
with respect to repeat calls for service and other criteria testing
the effectiveness of the pilot program.
   (3) The extent of any perceived or actual property value change
between the commencement and the completion of the pilot program.
   (4) The number of cases opened and the number of cases closed,
identifying the nature of code violations, the necessity of formal
proceedings, the cost and nature of abatement violations, or other
factors influencing the effectiveness of the pilot program.
   (g) The department shall review and report to the Legislature by
December 31, 2004, on the findings of the pilot program
administrators.
   (h) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2005, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2005, deletes or extends
that date.
   17998.3.  In implementing the programs governed by this chapter,
the department has all the general powers granted to it by Division
31 (commencing with Section 50000).
  SEC. 2.  (a) Of the amount appropriated in Item 2240-112-0001 of
Section 2.00 of the Budget Act of 2000, two million two hundred fifty
thousand dollars ($2,250,000) shall be used by the Department of
Housing and Community Development to implement Section 17998.2 of the
Health and Safety Code as enacted by Section 1 of this act.
   (b) Any funds not awarded by December 31, 2001, for the purposes
of the program authorized by Section 17998.2 of the Health and Safety
Code as enacted by Section 1 of this act shall be utilized by the
Department of Housing and Community Development for the program
authorized by Section 17998.1 of the Health and Safety Code as
enacted by Section 1 of this act.
  SEC. 3.  If this act becomes operative on or before January 1,
2001, then Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 17998) of Part 1.5 of
Division 13 of the Health and Safety Code, as added by Chapter 82 of
the Statutes of 2000, shall not become operative.
